When word leaked that the Suns were involved in a three-team deal that would send Jared Dudley to the Clippers, ship a second-round pick to Milwaukee and bring point guard Eric Bledsoe to Phoenix, it was reminiscent of another deal made about 25 years ago.

That one brought Kevin Johnson to the Valley.

This isn’t to say that Bledsoe is the next KJ. But there are some parallels.

Bledsoe, a first-round pick in 2010, is a 6-foot-1, 195-pound point guard who has gotten limited playing time the last two seasons behind Chris Paul, arguably the best playmaking guard in the NBA.

In his three NBA seasons, Bledsoe is averaging 6.7 points and 3.0 assists in only 19.6 minutes a game. Nobody knows yet just how good he can be.

KJ, meanwhile, was still a rookie when he came to the Suns but had been drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers and was getting limited playing time behind Mark Price, who would become a four-time All-Star.

The 6-1, 190-pound KJ was averaging 20.1 minutes, 7.3 points and 3.7 assists at the time of the deal. Nobody knew yet just how good he could be.

Like KJ, Bledsoe has explosive quickness and athleticism. He has better shooting range than KJ did when he arrived here, and he is on a whole different level as a defender.

While KJ once recorded a triple-double that included 10 steals and was assigned to guard Michael Jordan in the NBA Finals, defense wasn’t his calling card. It’s Bledsoe’s, and he comes calling with regularity, ranking third in the NBA last season in steals per 48 minutes.

On the other hand, few players have had the ability to slash like KJ or get to the free-throw line as frequently as he did thanks to his ability to drive the ball. And he was a master of the pick-and-roll.

But this is what really reminded us of KJ’s arrival: When he got here, the Suns had a young, 6-foot-3, 190-pound point guard named Jeff Hornacek.

Of course, Hornacek is now the Suns head coach, who happens to have a young, 6-foot-3, 190-pound point guard named Goran Dragic.

In 1988, the Suns slid Hornacek over to the shooting-guard position and he evolved into an All-Star. KJ and Hornacek were essentially a pair of combo guards who played together.

Like his coach then, Dragic has the ability to play off the ball or run the offense. Bledsoe and Dragic are essentially a pair of combo guards who could, potentially, play in the same backcourt, too.

With KJ, and then the addition of Tom Chambers in the off-season, the Suns made what was then the biggest turnaround in NBA history. We’re not anticipating anything like that from the Suns this season.

We won’t even know until the deal is officially announced how the Suns plan to use Bledsoe and Dragic because team officials can’t discuss it until it is finalized later this week.

But General Manager Ryan McDonough and Hornacek quickly are putting their stamp on the franchise, first with the selection of mobile, athletic center Alex Len with the No. 5 overall pick in the draft, and now the Bledsoe transaction. Both players have the potential to be important pieces of the team’s core far into the future.

The Suns have until Oct. 31 to sign Bledsoe to a contract extension or allow him to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season. We feel fairly confident they wouldn’t have agreed to the deal without having a pretty good idea what an extension is going to cost, and won’t want other teams to bid up the cost with offer sheets.

The Suns seem finally to have a plan and are going about rebuilding the right way.

Teams almost always overpay for marquee free agents, and frankly some names on the marquee this summer have the potential to go straight to video.

The Suns are better off building through the draft and with trades, filling holes with second-tier free agents. If there is a big-time free agent down the line who can put them over the top, that’s the time to spend.

Meanwhile, let’s give the previous management group some credit. We have been critical of a lot of moves made in the past by Lon Babby, the Suns president of basketball operations, and his former general manager, Lance Blanks.

But along the way, they also accumulated draft picks and cleared salary-cap space that gave McDonough flexibility to make the deal for Bledsoe. The Suns had to take on the $8 million contract of forward Caron Butler to get Bledsoe, but it expires at the end of the season, so the Suns haven’t hurt their cap position going forward.

In the meantime, there has been speculation that with Bledsoe’s acquisition, Dragic is now expendable.

Don’t bet on it.

Reach Young at 602-444-8271 or bob.young@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobYoungTHI.

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